Nature Where I Live: San Francisco: Allen's Hummingbird

Allen's Hummingbird, Middle Lake

I've been wondering when I'd see my first Allen's hummingbird of the year, and today was the day. I believe all the green on its back confirms this as an Allen's as opposed to a rufous hummingbird. Last year it was late February before I started to see them in Golden Gate Park.

I lucked into the sighting as I was looking for a way to photograph the buffleheads who were paddling around and diving in the lake. Their white feathers are too bright to photograph well in sunlight, so I thought today's cloud cover might give me a decent opportunity. On my way I was sidetracked by a particularly birdy area and spent a fair amount of time trying (unsuccessfully) to photograph a common yellowthroat and a few other birds.

When I first arrived I'd seen the Allen's hummingbird nectaring off the plant above, but it buzzed away and didn't return for quite a while. I was glad I'd worn a longjohn top under my bike jacket today, but I eventually got cold even so. The buffleheads, who'd been close to shore when I first saw them from a distance, had moved farther away by the time the hummer buzzed off again, so I never did try to photograph them.

A tiny bird flew into a hole, and while I was waiting to see if it would come back out, this squirrel popped into the scene, right in front of the bird-hole, and almost immediately did a U-turn when he saw me. I never saw the mystery bird and finally figured it had absconded through a rear exit.

Kind of surprising to still be seeing flushes of honey mushrooms. This has been a great rain year for large fleshy fungi like these and jumbo gyms.

The sky was so uniform for most of the morning that I was intrigued by this leak of definition. The weather forecast includes sprinkles today, but I haven't noticed any yet.

The bison were close to the back fence today and looked too beautiful to pass up.

A couple of them were even grazing. And a couple of times the grazing ones trundled to a new spot. I kind of got a chill of awe watching these massive animals walk by so close at hand. They are a much more formidable and elegant beast when all that mass is in motion.

Only one of the Balboa Natural Area red-tailed hawks has been around lately. This one had pounced on something below its perch in the cypress tree, but came up empty.

RBS was at his favorite tree again today. The sapsucker holes are multiplying....

The hummingbird, common yellowthroat, bewick's wren, ruby-crowned kinglet, and Townsend's warbler were all playing hard to get, so I snapped another shot of a hermit thrush that was kind enough to be still for a moment.

Allen's hummingbird on a willow branch.

Flexing the gorget.

I couldn't resist taking another photo of the red-bellied sapsucker on my way out of the area. The little red berry in the background was a bonus. Interesting that it appears to be hanging upside-down. Probably a phenomenon akin to ytivarg.